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FRI 6
TO THE
CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS
OF THE
Friern Barnet Urban District Council.
Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present to you my Report for the year
1908.
For the convenience of the Local Government Board and
those not well acquainted with the District, I repeat the following
short description.
The District of Friern Barnet is situated in the London
area, and is bounded on the North by East Barnet, on the East
by Southgate, on the South by Hornsey, and on the West by
Finchley.
It comprises 1,303 acres 1 rood (including 149 acres
occupied by the buildings and grounds of the Colney Hatch
Asylum), most of which is undulating ground, varying from 150
to 300 feet above the sea level, the geological formation being
London clay, with here and there patches of gravel.
The General Character of the District:—For the purposes
of representation, statistics, etc., it is divided into three wards—
North, South, and Central; and in addition, Colney Hatch
Asylum—situated between the Central and South Wards—is
treated separately to a great extent, as to include the deaths of
such an institution with those of the District would create a
mistaken and adverse impression.
The population is unevenly distributed; thus, in the North
Ward, a large part is pasture land, and the houses for the most
part are of a higher rateable value, being detached and separated
some distance from each other, but during the year several
houses of lower rent have bean built. The houses in the Central
Ward are chiefly semi-detached and in terraces and streets.
The South Ward is the most thickly populated, and the
houses in the neighbourhood of New Southgate Station and the
South-west part, where building is in progress, being of a
superior character; whilst the remainder are the usual six-roomed
houses, inhabited in many cases by more than one family. In
this Ward also there is the tendency to the erection of flats and
the conversion of six-roomed houses into flats.